Abstract

This article contributes to academic discussions regarding tele-anniversaries, ‘quality’ television, and nostalgia by examining an atypical example concerning how and why Twin Peaks (1990-91) underwent its 25th anniversary in 2014. Contrasting to previous studies, which have discussed centrally-controlled and brand-managed occasions (Holdsworth, 2011; Gray and Bell, 2013; Hills, 2013, 2015a), this article considers Twin Peaks’s silver jubilee as a dispersed anniversary which originated from a range of nebulously-connected statements originating in journalistic discourse before becoming appropriated by official marketing strategies. By examining the serialised development of paratextual statements concerning the dispersed anniversary, I demonstrate that this progressed through three phases (1. paratextual speculation; 2. confirmation and verification; and, 3. calendrical establishment) and centred around establishing ‘meta-paratexts’ (Hills, 2015a) and discursive wills to ‘commemorate’ and ‘cohere’ around which meanings concerning nostalgia, art and commerce became negotiated.

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